Documentaries

Content warnings for this screening
Theme warning: child abuse and neglect, institutionalization

Films in this screening:

Mia Ludvigsen Henriksen, Konrad Hjemli:

The Harbourmaster

Norway, 2022. 7 minutes.

“The Harbourmaster” tells the story of its titular swan, and of how he went from a beloved small town icon to a wanted criminal.

Mike Plitt, Falk Schuster:

Make or Break

Germany, 2022. 8 minutes.

Alex grows up in the GDR era with his single mother in the Vogtland region; the two of them take a lot of liberties because they can count on each other. When his mother publicly criticises the state, the youth welfare authorities decide to send Alex to a children’s home. Once there, the eleven-year-old no longer understands the world.

Elodie Dermange:

Armat
(Armat - Արմատ)

Switzerland, 2022. 12 minutes.

Elodie tries to find out more about her family’s Armenian origins. She interviews her father, her uncle, her great aunt, and discovers a harsh history where violence and the inability to express love are passed down from generation to generation.

Jessica Poon:

Sunset Singers

Germany, 2022. 11 minutes.

The retired Hong Kong couple, Long and Sophie, as amateur singers, attend their singing performance separately. Despite social unrest, their performance sets off as usual. While Sophie arrives early at the venue and gets herself prepared, Long is caught up in the subway by an unexpected circumstance.

Petra Stipetić, Maren Wiese:

The scent of beetroot and the people who live forever
(Vom Duft der Roten Beete und den Menschen, die ewig leben)

Germany, 2023. 13 minutes.

A scientist discovers the key to immortality: the scent of beetroot. Through its excessive use, an impenetrable magenta atmosphere soon envelops the entire planet. Immortality spreads like a virus: death is not only avoidable, but impossible. In real interviews, the inhabitants talk about their lives in this dystopian utopia.

Nina Bisyarina:

The Best Grandfather in the World
(Лучший дедушка на свете)

Russian Federation, 2022. 7 minutes.

Animated documentary about the childhood memories of the protagonist Felix, about his very close relationship with his grandfather and how everything changes when the grandson decides to come out as gay.

Total Refusal:

Hardly Working

Austria, 2022. 20 minutes.

Hardly Working sheds a limelight on the very characters that normally remain in the background of video games: NPCs. They are non-player characters that populate the digital world as extras to create the appearance of normality. A laundress, a stable boy, a street sweeper and a carpenter are observed with ethnographic precision. They are Sisyphus machines, whose labour routines, activity patterns as well as bugs and malfunctions paint a vivid analogy for work under capitalism.